Top rental hotspots in 2017 revealed!

16th December 2017

Whilst it has been a challenging year for private landlords, the buy-to-let sector continues to offer plenty of investment opportunities, but which cities have had the highest tenant demand and largest number of enquiries in 2017?

Taking an in-depth look at tenant enquiries and landlord listings broken down by property type, location, number of bedrooms, tenant demographic, among other factors, fresh research by TheHouseShop.com has found, somewhat unsurprisingly, that London received more enquiries about property listings available to rent when compared with other parts of the country.

London’s popularity was followed by Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester.

The data varied from region to region depending on what users were looking for, which has helped to build a clearer picture of the rental market in each city, according to the co-founder of TheHouseShop, Nick Marr.

He said: “This data can be utilised by buy-to-let landlords, as they can use it to gain a better understanding of the local rental market for each of the top five areas, should they consider expanding their property portfolio in 2018 by choosing to invest in one of these areas.”

Given the ever-changing nature of the buy-to-let market, Marr advises buy-to-let landlords to keep an eye on existing rental market trends and to re-evaluate their investment portfolio accordingly, in order to “take advantage of a new investment opportunity in the next high-demand location”.

A breakdown of the data reveals that in Bristol the majority tenant enquiries coming from the Millennial demographic with over two thirds, (63.64%) of total enquiries.

In comparison, Manchester saw the majority of enquiries from Generation X, (35-50 year-olds) with 71.43% and Birmingham had the highest number of Baby Boomer (51-69 year-olds) enquiries at 34.55%.

London also saw a high number of Millennials (18-34-year-olds), making up over half (50.65%) of enquiries on rental property listings in the city over the year, helping it become the number one area for total enquiries.

Other major findings included:

+ London saw a higher number of enquiries for flats at 69.98%

+ Those making enquiries on a property to rent in Leeds preferred houses at 59.15%

+ Leeds has the highest proportion of enquiries for one-bedroom flats at 35.92%

+ Bristol had the smallest number of enquiries for one-bedroom homes with just 21%

+ Two-bedroom properties were most popular in Bristol, with 47.48% of all enquiries.

+ Larger three-bedroom homes were most popular in Birmingham with 28.94% of total enquiries

+ London saw the lowest number of three-bedroom enquiries with just 17.82%